Meet the GBPAP18’s outstanding PTC showcases: LAVADI (Italy)

For the coming period, we will present you week by week, the most outstanding PTC showcases that were officially nominated for The Global Best Practices Awards Program 2018. The profiles of these companies are also present in the WOPCOM platform, which you can access here.

LAVADI (Italy)

Taking the textile care industry into the 21st century

The Lavadi business model is based on the well-known Laundrapp platform, an award-winning business model for the dry cleaning and laundry services industry. This English innovation basically makes it possible for people to manage all of their laundry requirements via an application on their mobile phone, from ordering a pick-up service to providing specific instructions per item and determining a drop-off point for their laundry to be delivered back to them. This system consists of three main parts: an award-winning customer app, a web-based back-end system to manage the system flows and a mobile app for drivers.
Through the Lavadi app on their mobile phone or tablet, customers can gain access to an extensive array of services. From washing and folding and washing and ironing, to dry cleaning services and the treatment of special or delicate items, Lavadi’s customers have all of it at their fingertips. By operating from Monday early in the morning to Saturday late at night, the company is specifically catering to those people who have a very busy lifestyle. This is an important segment for Lavadi, because this group usually has the disposable income to spend on completely outsourcing their laundry management and sufficient technological knowledge to feel comfortable using a mobile app.
Lavadi itself doesn’t own any textile care equipment or facilities, it functions as the developer, owner, and operator of the Lavadi application. The dry cleaning and laundry services facilities are provided by another company called ForLaundry, who also provide the drivers and the fleet of vehicles necessary for the carrying out of the service. One of the main reasons for Lavadi to choose ForLaundry as an official partner, was the latter’s dedication to running a sustainable operation.

Customers can manage their laundry with just a few clicks

Technology at the forefront

Lavadi’s operational structure consists of three main parts, namely the Lavadi mobile application for customers, a web-based admin console called Pulse that allows the company to manage its network and the mobile application for drivers to receive order coordinates. The customer app, available for iOS and Android, allows our customers to place an order within seconds by selecting their items and picking dates/times for collections and deliveries. It also informs customers about the status of their order with the help of push notifications, Through the app, customers can also reschedule their orders, which helps to avoid missing appointments.
Lavadi is actually the first digital, door-to-door laundry service in Italy. By offering a mobile application with a proven concept, the company wants to help its customers carry the burden of taking care of the laundry in their leisure time. This way, Lavadi wants to help raise the quality of life for society as a whole, garment per garment.

In addition to making life considerably easier for customers, the Lavadi concept also offers benefits to dry cleaning and laundry services providers everywhere. The company doesn’t want to compete with them, on the contrary, the goal of Lavadi is to get as many textile care providers as possible on their digital network. The system is currently only operational in the city of Milano, but the objective of the company is to be present in all of Italy’s most important cities by 2019, such as Rome, Torino, and Genoa. By using the Lavadi network and application, customers can save time to spend on more enjoyable tasks than doing the laundry, while it can help existing laundry businesses to get new customers and reach a larger market.

Environmental responsibility as a foundation for a partnership

As mentioned earlier, Lavadi provides the software and (digital) structure, including the apps and the back-end system, but the company doesn’t own any textile equipment or facilities. These are provided to the company by its official partner, ForLaundry, an established dry cleaning and laundry services operation in the region. Seeing as Lavadi positions itself as the future of the Italian dry cleaning and laundry services industry, the topic of sustainability played an important role in the selection of an operational partner.

ForLaundry is always searching for methods to improve the company’s efficiency in terms of the amounts of water, power, and detergent it consumes. By investing in modern equipment, the company can save money over the longer term as less resources are required to run the same cleaning processes. Any hot water that was demanded a cleaning program, but that in the end wasn’t used by the washing machines, is collected in a tank and used for the next washing cycle. A social and environmental conscience was a key deciding factor for Lavadi when choosing a partner, and ForLaundry ticked all the boxes.